denjet
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2009
- Messages
- 915
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- -40
I've thought quite a bit about what Lyon believes (or at least what she maintains she believes). She's against the DP for at least 2 reasons. One is that she thinks everyone should be given the chance for redemption. I'm the first to forgive people for most anything because I know none of us are without faults. But for some deeds there may not be room for redemption, at least as far as the good of society goes. Lyon states an example of a man who does a really heinous deed and stated he has redeemed himself by sending his prison pay to Africa to feed a couple of kids. Well, I think that's well and good that he's doing that, but in my opinion, that does not make up for what he did. I would think that even Hitler did a couple of good deeds in his life, so I wonder if Lyon would think that even he deserved a chance at redemption?
The second reason is that Lyon states that the DP does not reduce violent crimes, and even offers her belief that states that have the DP have a higher crime rate than the states without it. Her reasoning is faulty since we have no idea what is the cause of the crime rates in each state. How do we know that a state with the DP has it for the reason that they do have so much crime, and it's the state's effort to curtail it? How do we know whether or not a state with the DP would have had a much higher crime rate if they had not had it in place? If there are studies that point out the cause of crime rates, why didn't Lyon cite them? But this much I do know: If a serial killer is convicted and executed, the murders he would have committed had he lived have been prevented. And I imagine Lyon would simply say, "just keep him in prison for the rest of his life and he won't be a danger to society." But won't he be a danger to those who live in prison with him? Aren't prison inmates members of society too even though incarcerated?
You bring up a point I hadn't thought of ... what would a serial killer like Ted Bundy do while in prison ... the potential is there for him to kill again ... inmates AND prison personnel could become victims ... let's face it, a murder who's sentence to LWOP in a state that doesn't have the DP has nothing to lose ...
Ms Lyon states many things as facts that may not be and she interprets statistics to favor her argument .. The more I learn about her, the less I believe what she says ...